Today’s ‘Doonesbury’ developments

The Miami Herald says it’s running all but one of this week’s “Doonesbury” strips in the print edition. Managing editor Rick Hirsch tells me it’s the Thursday strip that won’t run — the one with the line: “By the authority vested in me by the GOP base, I thee rape.”

Buffalo News editor Margaret Sullivan tells readers that “Doonesbury” won’t appear on the comics page this week, “but the News will run all six of the daily strips in a single block on an inside page of this Sunday’s Viewpoints section, amid other political cartoons, with an explanatory note.” She adds: “This allows our readers to see the strips in print in a more appropriate context.”

Fort Worth Star-Telegram editorial director J.R. Labbe tells readers that “the reason for not printing the strip [this week] has nothing to do with left- or right-wing politics. It has everything to do with civility and consistency.”

The Patriot-News chose not to run the strips, and editor David Newhouse says “most of the emails or calls we received took us to task for right-wing “censorship.” His reaction to that:

First of all, we’d like to welcome anyone who feels this way to join our volunteer Conservative Bias Panel – your job will be to contact the next e-mailers or callers who accuse us of being a “left-wing rag” so you can set them straight and explain that we’re actually a right-wing rag!